d20 The Game Mechanics Artifacts of the Ages - Legendary Weapons.pdf - The Game Mechanics - R5700

Also requires the use of one of the following: Swords of Our Fathers (PDF) or Staves of Ascendance (PDF) from The Game Mechanics, Artifacts of the Ages: Swords

and Staves (print) or Artifacts of the Ages: Rings (print) from The Game Mechanics and Green Ronin Publishing, or Unearthed Arcana from Wizards of the Coast.

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Introduction

Welcome to Artifacts of the Ages: Legendary

Weapons —a sourcebook for magic weapons in

fantasy d20 System games.

For most d20 System characters, weapons are

their most valued and important possessions. Yet

many heroes cycle through magic weapons on a

regular basis, selling oﬀ a trusted blade because

a new, more powerful weapon was found in the

possession of a vanquished foe. While this “trading

up” activity is common in fantasy roleplaying

games, fans will seldom ﬁ nd it in fantasy literature,

where a hero’s weapon is an extension of his or

her own personality. Tossing aside such a weapon

would be akin to losing a limb!

Legendary weapons give player characters a

reason to hang on to magic items. The legendary

weapons found in this book grow in power as a

wielder dedicates herself

to mastery of the weapon.

A GM can give a family

heirloom to a player at a

low level, and the weapon

will mete out its powers

bit by bit over time, so

that the GM needn’t worry

about pu� ing too powerful a weapon into the

hands of a low-level character.

How to Use This Book

The weapons in this book are designed for use

with the rules featured in Swords of Our Fathers

and Staves of Ascendance , PDFs from The Game

Mechanics available on RPGNow.com. These

rules were also compiled in Artifacts of the Ages:

Swords and Staves (from The Game Mechanics and

Green Ronin Publishing) and Unearthed Arcana

(from Wizards of the Coast). Any of these sources

should give one the base one needs to introduce

legendary weapons into a campaign, including

full details of the prestige classes required to

unlock the powers of legendary weapons.

Chapter Two details 17 legendary weapons

that grow in power as their scions grow in level.

Chapters are divided by scion type (ba� le, faith,

spell, and swi� ), and each weapon includes a rich

history, requirements for becoming its scion, a plot

hook that a GM may use to introduce the weapon,

and full details of its ever-growing powers.

These weapons are wri� en by some of the ﬁ nest

designers and developers working on the d20

System today, as well as some new and growing

talent we’ve found at The Game Mechanics.

We greatly appreciate their participation in this

project! Chapter Five includes new optional rules

for use with legendary weapons, including further

specialization of the prestige classes to match d20

System base classes.

Improving Exotic Weapons

One may ﬁ nd more exotic legendary weapons in

these pages than one may initially expect. Without

legendary weapon rules, there can be a high,

hidden cost to exotic weapons. By deﬁ nition, they

are more rare as loot, so people who take feats

for exotic weapons have a much smaller chance

of ﬁ nding an upgrade in a monster’s horde than

someone who specializes in a more common

martial weapon. Such a character may have to buy

upgrades, or may decide that very nice magical

martial weapon is be� er, leaving the exotic weapon

feats unused.

With legendary weapon rules, the conditions

have changed. A character is no longer taking

feats to support a type of exotic weapon, but a

speciﬁ c weapon that will grow in power as the

character advances. The risk of taking exotic

weapon feats is greatly minimized because the

character will probably dedicate the rest of her

adventuring career to mastering that single

weapon. A legendary weapon is a treasure for

life, and a character who chooses to dedicate

herself to advancing a legendary weapon will

certainly be willing to spend the exotic weapon

feats on it as well.

For the GM

Artifacts of the Ages: Legendary Weapons makes use

of prestige classes in the truest sense: taking one of

these classes and dedicating oneself to a legendary

weapon makes a character someone special in the

grand scheme of things. Consequently, the GM

must be prepared to utilize these weapons in his

campaign. If he’s not prepared to do so, then he

should make it clear to his players that these items,

and thus these prestige classes, aren’t available.

On the other hand, if a GM is willing to take

this plunge, the characters can wield legendary

weapons that more or less automatically scale to

the level of the characters’ power—running the

gamut from minor magic item to minor artifact.

The very existence of these items can be used

to make the campaign world that much more a

magical place, full of adventure and mystery—

which is what heroic fantasy is ultimately all about.

Web Enhancement

Additional material for use with Artifacts

of the Ages: Legendary Weapons and

any discovered errata can be found at

The Game Mechanics’ website

(www.thegamemechanics.com).

Chapter One: Variant Rules

By Rich Redman

The magic items described in this series of books

build on reducing the basic character classes of

fantasy d20 to four: ba� le scions, spell scions, faith

scions, and swi� scions. While those are useful

general categories, they put a tremendous burden

on the magic items themselves. Items designed for

barbarians must advance barbarian rage as well as

provide their own unique abilities, items designed

for ﬁ ghters need to grant additional feats, and so on.

This variant proposes variant scion classes for

use in your game and suggests example alterations

to existing items when using this variant.

General Rules

When a character takes his or her ﬁ rst level in a

scion class, he or she must choose a path to follow.

For example, a ba� le scion must choose barbarian,

ﬁ ghter, paladin, or ranger (your game may have

additional or diﬀ erent basic classes). The character

does not choose again, so the path is ﬁ xed at the

beginning of his or her career as a scion.

Battle Scions

The table below shows the variant ba� le scion paths.

If you use this variant, the table below replaces the

standard ba� le scion advancement table.

Hit Die: All ba� le scions use d10 for Hit Dice.

that pursues a career as a

ranger ba� le scion uses the

ranger’s skill points and

class skill list.

Behind the Scenes

These variants have two, complimentary,

purposes. The ﬁ rst is to provide more

variety among the different scion

classes. A barbarian battle scion will

become quite different from paladin

battle scion, for example.

The second is to give characters more

of the signature abilities of their basic

classes. Doing so relieves the legendary

items of having to duplicate those

abilities. This variant does not provide all

the class abilities, nor does it advance the

abilities it does provide as rapidly as the

base class does. This is intentional.

Class Features

The following are class

features of the ba� le scion

prestige classes. Like the

standard scion prestige

classes, these abilities are

retained with or without a

legendary item. Each such

item provides a unique set

of additional special abilities, which are detailed

in their descriptions in Chapter 2. These abilities

accrue in addition to those in this table, but are

functions of the item and are lost if the legendary

item that granted them is lost.

Rage (Ex): Barbarian ba� le scions gain

additional uses of their rage class ability as noted

on the table. If the character became a barbarian

ba� le scion before gaining the rage class ability, this

does not grant it. However, when such a barbarian

ba� le scion reaches ﬁ rst level as a barbarian, he

immediately gains all the uses per day granted by

this ability.

Bonus Feat: Fighter ba� le scions gain bonus

feats as indicated on the table. These bonus feats

must be chosen feats noted as ﬁ ghter bonus feats

on Table 5-1: Feats in the PHB v3.5 .

Undead (Su): A paladin ba� le scion’s eﬀ ective

cleric level when turning undead increases as noted

on the table. If the paladin became a ba� le scion

Requirements

There are no changes in the rules for requirements.

Class Skills

Ba� le scions use the skill points and class skill

list of their chosen path. For example, a ﬁ ghter

Table 1–1: Battle Scion Variants

Will

Save Barbarian Fighter Paladin Ranger

1st +0 +2 +0 +0 +1/day rage Bonus feat +1 undead +1 Ref save

2nd +1 +3 +0 +0

Base

Attack Bonus

Fort

Save

Ref

Save

+1 animal

3rd +1 +3 +1 +1

Bonus feat Smite evil +1/day

4th +2 +4 +1 +1 +1 DR

+1 animal

5th +2 +4 +1 +1 +1/day rage

+1 Ref save

6th +3 +5 +2 +2

Bonus feat +1 undead +1 animal

7th +3 +5 +2 +2 Enhance rage

Enhance

combat style

8th +4 +6 +2 +2 +1 DR

Smite evil +1/day +1 animal

9th +4 +6 +3 +3 +1/day rage Bonus feat

+1 Ref save

10th +5 +7 +3 +3

+1 animal

Class

Level

Chapter One: Variant Rules

before gaining the ability to turn undead, this does

not grant it. However, when such a ba� le scion

gains the ability to turn undead through cleric or

paladin levels, he immediate gains all the eﬀ ective

levels granted by this ability.

Reﬂ ex Saves: Unlike the other three base classes

that shape this variant of the ba� le scion, the ranger

has two good saving throw bonuses: Fortitude

and Reﬂ ex. This class ability improves the ranger’s

Reﬂ ex saving throw as noted in the table above.

Animal (Ex): Add the indicated bonus to the

ba� le scion’s ranger levels when determining

adjustments for his animal companion. For example,

a 6th-level ranger’s animal companion has the same

adjustments as that of a 3rd-level druid. The animal

companion of a 4th-level ranger/2nd-level ranger

ba� le scion has the same adjustments as that of a

2nd-level druid, because his eﬀ ective ranger level

is 5th when determining adjustments to his animal

companion’s scores and abilities.

If a ranger ba� le scion does not have the animal

companion class ability, this does not grant it.

However, when such a ranger ba� le scion gains the

animal companion class ability through druid or

ranger levels, he immediately gains all the eﬀ ective

levels granted by this ability.

Smite Evil (Su): A paladin ba� le scion gains

additional uses of her ability to smite evil as noted

on the table. If a ba� le scion does not have the

ability to smite evil, this does not grant it. However,

when such a ba� le scion gains the ability to smite

evil through paladin levels, he immediately gains all

the uses granted by this ability.

Damage Reduction (Ex): A barbarian ba� le

scion’s damage reduction improves as indicated

on the table. If the ba� le scion does not yet have

damage reduction, he gains it now at 1/—. If the

ba� le scion gains additional damage reduction

through barbarian levels, the bonuses stack. A 10th-

level barbarian/4th-level ba� le scion has damage

reduction of 3/—.

Enhance Rage (Ex): If the barbarian ba� le scion

has the rage class ability, this ability grants him the

Greater Rage class ability. If he has the Greater Rage

class ability, this ability grants him Tireless Rage.

If he has the Tireless Rage class ability, this ability

grants him Mighty Rage. See the barbarian class

description in Chapter 3: Classes of the PHB v3.5 for

rules on the various rage abilities.

If a character completes all ten levels of the

ba� le scion class and then takes suﬃ cient levels of

barbarian to gain an ability granted by this class a

second time, he gets no additional beneﬁ t.

Enhance Combat Style (Ex): If the ranger ba� le

scion does not have the combat style class ability,

this ability grants it to him. That means he must

choose between archery or two-weapon combat

now. If the ranger ba� le scion has the combat style

class ability, this ability grants him the improved

combat style class ability. If the ranger ba� le scion

has the improved combat style class ability, this

ability grants him the combat style mastery class

ability. See the ranger class description in Chapter

4: Classes of the PHB v3.5 for rules on the various

combat style abilities.

If a character completes all ten levels of the

ba� le scion class and then takes suﬃ cient levels

of ranger to gain an ability granted by this class a

second time, he gets no additional beneﬁ t.

Spell Scions

It is possible that a wizard will choose to pursue a

sorcerer spell scion career, or vice versa. The path

chosen is also the class to which additional caster

levels apply. For example, a wizard decides to

pursue his spell scion path as a sorcerer. He must

add his spell scion levels to his sorcerer levels

when determining spells per day and spell known.

Class Skills

Spell scions use the skill points and class skill list

of their chosen path. For example, a wizard that

pursues a career as a sorcerer spell scion uses the

sorcerer’s skill points and class skill list.

Faith Scions

The table below shows the variant faith scion paths.

If you use this variant, the table below replaces the

standard faith scion advancement table.

Hit Die: All faith scions use d8 for Hit Dice.

Requirements

There are no changes in the rules for requirements.

Class Skills

Faith scions use the skill points and class skill list

of their chosen path. For example, a cleric that

pursues a career as a druid faith scion uses the

druid’s skill points and class skill list.

Class Features

The following are class features of the faith

scion prestige classes. Like the standard scion

prestige classes, these abilities are retained

with or without a legendary item. Each such

item provides a unique set of additional special

abilities, which are detailed in their descriptions

in Chapter Two. These abilities accrue in addition

to those in this table, but are functions of the item

and are lost if the legendary item that granted

them is lost.

Undead (Su): A cleric faith scion’s eﬀ ective

cleric level when turning undead increases as

noted on the table. If a faith scion does not yet

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